Hundreds of people gathered Sunday afternoon at the Peoria County Courthouse for the second peaceful demonstration held by Young Revolution, in honor of George Floyd and five local black men who died in police custody in recent years.
Mariah Cooley, president of Young Revolution, addressed the crowd at the "#AreWeNext?" rally before leading a moment of silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds — the length of time Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck before he died.
“Today, we are united again to show support to these grieving families,” Cooley said. “Peoria has its own history of brutality and we are still fighting for justice when we shouldn’t have to. As a community, we have come together to give our love to those that have lost someone close. It’s easy to say, ‘I can’t imagine how they must feel.’ But you have to imagine it.”
Eddie Russell Jr., Daniel El, Luis Cruz, David Smith, and Trashaun Shields all died while in police custody since 2017. Three of those deaths were later determined to be justified by Peoria County prosecutors. Smith's death in October and Shields’ death in May are still under investigation.
Jasmine Quinn, one of Shields’ cousins, spoke a week after burying him, directing her comments at law enforcement.
“Gunned down like an animal. That’s a grown man. A human being,” Quinn said. “Three little boys got to grew up wondering, ‘What happened to my daddy?’ You don’t feel sorry for that? You don’t feel bad? You took somebody’s father.”
Quinn said there are no excuses for police officers to fear the people they’re hired to serve.
“You can’t be out here taking lives because you’re mad. If you’re scared, if you’re afraid — you picked the wrong job,” she said, eliciting cheers and applause from the crowd.
Young Revolution offered eight directives for the city of Peoria to take immediately:
- "Ban the use of chokeholds and strangleholds."
- "Mandatory de-escalation training."
- "Require police to give a verbal warning before the use of deadly force."
- "Require that all forms of nonviolent and less-lethal force are used before having to use a gun."
- "Require officers to intervene when excessive force is used and report it to their supervisors immediately."
- "Ban shooting at moving vehicles."
- "Establish a force continuum where the most severe forces are restricted to the most severe cases, and there are clear policy restrictions on the use of each weapon."
- "Require officers to report each time they use force or threaten to use force against a civilian. That information should be available to the public.”
Pierre Paul, one of the group’s organizers, said that’s just the beginning.
“Reforming the criminal justice system is just one part of the solution,” Paul said. “The second part is getting to realize that, morally, a lot of the United States is not in a place to start seeing misjustice, because they don’t believe what’s happening is unjust. This is what this is for. Opening up the dialogue for the community.”
Demonstrators marched from the courthouse to the Gateway Building, where organizers hosted a Q&A to address topics, including teaching black history, addressing racist comments from family members, and how local law enforcement agencies should spend their budgets.
Peoria County Sheriff Brian Asbell fielded some of those questions.
“We’ve already gone through a reduction,” Asbell said. “I’m also in a position where I may have to cut all the programs I’ve started in the last 10 years that are centered around re-entry and mental health. That breaks my heart and I’m fighting for that.”
Asbell told demonstrators they were right that “the criminal justice system is a racist institution.” He said the most important thing they can do is vote, and continue to speak up about injustice.
“There’s so much talk about the rotten apples. Rotten apples, rotten apples, rotten apples. Guys, it’s a rotten tree,” Asbell said.
Young Revolution’s organizers say they’ll continue to stage protests and push for policy change as long as the problem persists.
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